Roma Stadium Update

The vice mayor of Italy’s capital Rome has expressed the city’s approval of the euro 1.6 billion stadium project, which would become the new home of AS Roma football club.

Courtesy Stadio Della Roma – Roma Stadium
A rendering of the Stadio Della Roma, which would become home to the AS Roma soccer team in Italy.

Consumer and environmental protection agency Codacons has announced plans to appeal. Plans for the Stadio Della Roma were first announced in March 2014. The project has since been caught in administrative limbo. Up until recently Rome’s first mayor Virginia Raggi was against the project. Rome has been in political and economic turmoil for years.

This led to buildings of poor quality being erected all over the city without meeting safety regulations and, sometimes, without planning permissions to begin with.

Hence Raggi’s hard line against new buildings. A tweet by AS Roma legend Francesco Totti in favor of the new stadium seems to have changed her mind.

“We want our modern Colosseum,” Totti wrote, referring to the stadium’s design, which was conceived by Dan Meis. Raggi responded that her administration was working on it and would be delighted to welcome Totti to Rome’s Capitoline Hill to discuss the plans.

Totti responded that he’d happily meet after the plans had been approved. However, even if the 52,500-capacity stadium did get approved, an appeal by Codacons could significantly delay the project further.